Gwen Stefani Felt Like a 'Loser' Missing Family Time While in No Doubt
Gwen Stefani opened up about the challenges of having kids when No Doubt wanted to make another record.
The singer, 54, told Nylon in an interview published on Tuesday, April 9, that when she returned from her Sweet Escape world tour to take care of son Kingston months after his 2006 birth, she was in over her head.
“I was dead,” she said, noting that she thought the band was “disappointed” upon learning that she was pregnant again. “I don’t think they would say that. No one’s going to be mad [that] you’re having a baby. But while I was busy, they were kind of waiting.”
Stefani shares sons Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10, with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale, to whom she was married from 2002 to 2016. While raising her family, Stefani was also “trying to please” bandmates Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal and Adrian Young as they attempted to make a comeback. (No Doubt went on a hiatus in 2004.)
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The band came back together for a tour in 2009 before releasing their 2012 album, Push and Shove, but Stefani acknowledged that “things change when you have two babies,” adding, “There was nothing left in me. I had no ideas. I had so much insecurity. I felt like — help!”
Balancing her work and home life proved difficult. “I would be leaving my family [to write songs],” she added. “And if I didn’t come home with a song, I’d be like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m such a loser — I didn’t have dinner with my family, and I didn’t write a song. I wasted an entire day of my life trying to be in No Doubt again.’”
Stefani recalled thinking, ‘“God, what was I doing trying to please everybody?’ Because really, I should have just been with my family. But we did it, and there are some good songs.”
Following her divorce, Stefani married Blake Shelton in 2021. Now that her kids have grown up, Stefani and the rest of No Doubt are reuniting to perform at Coachella, which takes place from April 12 to 14 and April 19 to 21.
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“It’s been a long time coming,” she told Nylon. “It’s been something that we were going to do. … Most things have surprised me in life. One of the things I’ve learned is to be present in the moment and try to absorb what’s happening around me instead of looking ahead.”
Stefani still puts family first despite her busy career. Elsewhere in the interview, she addressed rumors of problems in her marriage to Shelton, 47.
“When you’re in love and have truly aligned values, nobody can get to us,” Stefani said. “You can say whatever you want to say about our relationship — I mean, a week ago we were getting divorced again or something. It’s just lies. The truth is the truth, and we know what that is.”
